Web Site Lets Public Track Alaska Volcano

Web Site Lets Public Track Alaska Volcano

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - From his home in Nanwalek, Vince Evans
can stare across the water at Augustine Volcano as it pumps out clouds of ash and steam, but like many residents in the isolated village, Evans
prefers to check the Internet for the latest on the erupting island mount.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory's popular Web site lets the public track Augustine's activity, from live earthquake data to hourly updates on the
blasts of ash and rocky pyroclastic flows that have rumbled down the snowy volcano since it began erupting in mid-January.

"When I wake up, I turn it on and keep track of Augustine through the night," said Evans, a 43-year-old health practitioner in the south-central
Alaska community.

With a network that includes seismic stations, cameras and Global Positioning System receivers, Augustine is the most heavily instrumented volcano in
the state. In the last decade, scientists have concentrated equipment on the uninhabited island because it is a short flight from Anchorage and the
Kenai Peninsula and has less vegetation, ice and snow than other nearby volcanos in the Alaska Range.